episodes of Pete Kelly's Blues

"This one's about Pete Kelly."

Pete Kelly's Blues showcased, as the announcer put it, "the big music and the big trouble in the big twenties." The series was created by Jack Webb (you thought he only did Dragnet?) and grew out of his lifelong fascination with jazz. The series debuted two years after Dragnet and was set in a Kansas City speakeasy during the Prohibition years. It combined the details of a Dragnet, the prose of a pulp, vivid characterizations, and always managed to fit in some authentic 20s combo jazz performances. Pete Kelly's Blues aired as a 1951 summer series. Although short-lived, it was followed by a successful film with Webb and Peggy Lee, and several traditional-jazz albums inspired by the series were also released.